Toltec School board discusses bus incident

ELOY — Toltec School District board members on Wednesday discussed a Sept. 3 incident when three adults stepped onto a school bus that was headed to Arizona City Elementary School.

Pinal County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the bus stop as the three parents were allegedly yelling and asking the bus driver to do something about behaviors that were impacting their children.

After the parents would not exit the bus when the driver asked them to, he radioed back to the bus barn, and calls were made to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and school district administrators.

“Parents came on the bus along with students,” Denise Rogers, superintendent, told school board members. “When they didn’t exit the bus, he stood up to block entry onto the bus at the beginning of the aisle. He called on the radio for assistance.”

Members of school district administration responded to the scene along with three PCSO deputies, according to Rogers.

“We had six cameras that recorded the incident, which we took to the police. It is in their hands to handle. The bus driver acted appropriately by standing up, blocking entry and calling for assistance. We got the matter handled and turned over to the authorities,” Rogers told the school board.

There were no comments from the general public when the district board discussed the matter at the regular meeting.

In other action, the school board dismissed Oliver Brown, who joined the district in August as a new sixth grade teacher at Toltec Middle School. No reason was given for the dismissal as the matter is a personnel issue. Brown is originally from Torrington, Wyoming, according to a piece about him published at the beginning of the school year.

The matter was approved by the board with no public discussion as it was discussed before the public meeting in a properly convened executive session.

The board also discussed revamping the district logo.

“I just wanted to explore what you thought and some possible ideas to update our current logo,” Superintendent Rogers told the board.

She said the current district logo features an old school that is no longer in use.

Rogers said the district could reach out to professional design companies for possible logo ideas or perhaps staff, parents and students could submit ideas and logo designs. She added that the district could even have a logo design competition.

Board member Pam Long said, “Well, it is extremely outdated. I think we want to move into the future as an initiative school. It would be great to have a logo that more represented that. We can possibly make it a contest in the community, staff and students. I really think we need to update it.”

Most of the board liked the idea of updating the logo with a contest.

“We can get the community involved in it and remind them that we’re here,” Long said.

The board only discussed the idea and no action on a new logo was taken officially.